Christmas with Balloons

Balloon Magic Tricks

Eeshan, Martin and Nitin were off to the church on the eve of Christmas. As they approached the gates of the church, Eeshan saw many children begging. They were crowding around a man selling balloons.

Martin said, “Let us buy them balloons instead of giving them money.”

Eeshan said, “I have a better idea.”

The following day, they combined all their pocket money. They gathered as many children as they could, from the outside of the church and arranged for them to go to Martin’s farm house. As the children sat in a room, eager to know what was coming, Eeshan spoke, “Hi! Today we will not only give you balloons, but also show you some tricks. Tricks that will make you wonder about the magic behind them.”

The children clapped in excitement and Eeshan called out a young boy from the audience. He asked him to draw a funny face on an inflated balloon. Eeshan then let out a little air from the balloon and held the end with his hand tightly.

He said, “The face doesn’t have ears! Why don’t you hold the paper cups where his ears are supposed to be?” The child did as he was told and Eeshan filled the balloon with air again. He said, “Now remove your hands and the ears will stick!”

“This is the magic of air pressure and surface area. When I deflate the balloon and place the cups, a great deal of surface fits into the cup.
While the balloon goes from small to large again, no air has come into the cup. The same amount of air is in there, but it has a bigger space to occupy with the inflation of the balloon, creating a low pressure inside the cup.

The pressure outside the cup is the same as before, and higher than the pressure inside the cup. The high pressurized air outside the cup tries to get into the low pressure air inside the cup and pushes the cup on to the side of the balloon, holding it in place,” said Eeshan.